The Mess That is “Snohomish County”

This is a compilation of posts I have made on my blog about the local shennigans going on daily in our county.

Most of these stories come from the Everett Herald but lately it all seems to be PR for the county. It really makes me very sad.

All media whether it’s small time like myself or mainstream like the Herald has a responsibility to it’s readers, not it’s advertisers or it’s county, city or state governments.

Like they say “Those who control the media control the message” the message is: Those who pay us the most will control the message…

When will people finally wake up and quit voting for these ingrates?

You simply can not make this stuff up.

This is the current state of affairs of our county government: Most horrifying is this: Just think of all the stories that don’t get reported.

1} Gold Bar Council Member Chris Wright domestic violence that never made the local paper.
On February 5, 2012, Seattle Times reported published a false statement that Gold Bar council member Chris Wright does not have a criminal conviction for domestic violence. After the Gold Bar Reporters (GBR) contacted open government supporters the Seattle Times “recanted and revised” the false statement. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/avantgo/2017434837.htmlInformation in this article, originally published Feb. 6, 2012 was corrected Feb. 9, 2012. A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that City Councilmember Christopher Wright had never been charged with domestic violence. A more detailed review of court records shows a domestic-violence assault conviction in 2007.

The feds couldn’t investigate it themselves as soon as people started dropping dead all over the place? What other place do you know of where there have been that many deaths that DOJ hasn’t been on them like stink on spit? What other place has had that many deaths?

Deborah McPherson, 59, said several top county officials including Deputy Executive Mark Soine, who resigned Monday, knew or should have known about misconduct by male managers in the Planning Department and failed to take action. The lawsuit also names the county official who investigated workplace complaints of harassment and discrimination, Mark Knudsen. Knudsen resigned in February days before an investigation concluded that he had prepared written reports in only about one-fourth of complaints over the past decade and in some cases completely lost records of employee complaints. Knudsen reported to Soine. The lawsuit is the latest in the fallout over complaints about the treatment of female staff members under former Planning Director Craig Ladiser. Ladiser resigned in August after an investigation concluded that he had exposed himself to a woman during a building-industry golf tournament. He faces assault charges in King County over the incident. McPherson said Tuesday she took legal action against the county only as a last resort. She said she complained to Ladiser, Knudsen and Human Resources Director Bridget Clawson, about a sexist office environment and retaliation against her for protesting women’s treatment, but that nothing was done. The lawsuit describes the Planning Department under Ladiser and his deputy Greg Morgan as a “Harley Club” where male managers routinely left work early, drank excessively, rode motorcycles together and gave each other preferential treatment in hiring and promotions. The complaint says that Morgan, who served as deputy director from 2006 to May 2009, boasted about his use of a sexual-performance drug, touched women inappropriately and forwarded e-mails with pictures of naked women from his work computer.

b} 2010: Jackie Hall and Dan Bly, Snohomish Corrections Deputies, filed a workplace complaint with Snohomish County’s Equal Employment Opportunity investigator. Each received $50,000 and resigned their jobs this summer as part of the agreement reached with the county. Mark Knudsen, the attorney who handled their EEO complaint, resigned from the county, after more than 10 years on the job.

e} Such is the case in Snohomish County. A few months ago, we researched the Kay Kohler story, which we featured in this story and video. It exposed a situation where Snohomish County offered and paid $404,000 for part of Kay Kohler’s property, changed their minds on the valuation, and got a judgment to get most of the money back. In the end, Kay Kohler lost most of her family property and her compensation, and she spent far more on attorney’s fees than what she had been paid by Snohomish County. (From the Freedom Foundation)

5} At least they have settled in one of the 20+ deaths at the county jail,

seeing as how she suffocated in her own sputum it was kind of hard for them to claim they weren’t at fault. Not only was she found dead in her cell but her body was already stiff by the time they found her.

EVERETT — A Snohomish County court clerk who handled cash payments made by young criminal defendants is now facing a felony theft charge for…

7} If all else fails & you are caught with your hand in the cookie jar you can just file a counter~claim to take the focus off of you like Everett City Councilman Ron Gipson did.

“The personnel problems in the juvenile lockup came to a head on Jan. 21, when administrators placed Gipson and Weathersby on administrative leave.” Details come from Vreeland’s letter, which describes Gipson and Weathersby of being “publicly escorted out of the facility in front of subordinates and co-workers.”

EVERETT — Prosecutors are asking that a former Snohomish County employee be ordered to pay more than $15,000 to the United Way of Snohomish County as part his punishment for pocketing money earmarked for charity.Fredrick Bletson Jr., 61, also faces up to a year in jail after pleading… Date: 09/05/2013

SNOHOMISH — The former longtime manager at a private water system that serves more than 1,000 homes in unincorporated east Snohomish County is now charged with siphoning away more than $400,000 through theft. Date: 09/03/2013

LAKE STEVENS – A Lake Stevens police officer filed a lawsuit against the city on Tuesday alleging that city officials destroyed his reputation and made him take the fall for their “incompetence and failures.” 02/12/14

LAKE STEVENS — A lawsuit filed last week accuses the Lake Stevens Police Department of retaliating against a police sergeant after she complained of sexual harassment. City officials deny the claim and say they plan to fight. 11/11/13

EVERETT — The Snohomish County Executive’s Office quietly has begun a reshuffling of employees at the county morgue, including plans to hire a manager to oversee operations and staff. The chief medical investigator at the… 11/03/13

EVERETT — The Snohomish County social worker who sparked a 2011 criminal investigation of then-County Executive Aaron Reardon has filed a $750,000 damage claim against the county. Tamara Dutton claims she has been subjected… 10/23/13

14} I’m sure everyone remembers this: Former Mountlake Terrace police commander Don Duncan got a traffic ticket and a $550 fine in his drunken-driving arrest earlier this year. The only bright spot is that he hasn’t been on PAID administrative leave this whole time because they fired him & kicked him off the taxpayer teat

15} The problems at the Denny Youth Center keep piling up but 3 women were finally compensated 750K Dee Thayer, Barbara Lucken and Karen Hastings for the years of torture & sexual harassment at the hands of mainly this “highly respected“ public official, city of Everett Councilman Ron Gipson. The man who brags that he has to put antibiotics in his wife’s food so she doesn’t get a disease from all of the action he gets, the only action he’s getting is PAID administrative leave. So this has only cost the taxpayers 1.6 million dollars so far & folks it is NOT over because there is an independent investigation going on that still won’t be done until early 2015

17} Lovick is showing the world his true stripes & spots now.. His henchmen are threatening council members & now the taxpayers are going to have to pay 15K to an attorney to figure out if they “did anything wrong” because Lovick a former LEGISLATOR & POLICE OFFICER is too flipping dumb to figure it out by himself, I mean WHY would he know anything about the LAW?

The story goes Councilmen Somers, Ryan & Klein did something Wright, Sullivan & Lovick didn’t like ~ more correctly they refused to kiss his butt, he only has 2 cheeks you’d think Wright & Sullivan would be enough & Christman & Ericks are firmly attached to one of them.

So Mark Ericks the Deputy County Executive & Dan Christman the Medical Examiner’s Deputy Director threaten Somers, Ericks says he would kill Somers if it wasn’t for jail time but then Kristenson offers to write out a death certificate for Ericks if he did, yet Snohomish County Executive John Lovick said there’s no evidence that his top deputy threatened or harassed county councilmen. WTF?

This happened right about the same time as the Marysville Pilchuck shooting & in this day & age we ALL need to take workplace violence or threats of violence VERY seriously. We are talking about 3 former law enforcement officers with a history of instability & complete inability to play well with others. The council vote took away 17,500 dollars of Ericks money & totally eliminated Christman’s job: Trust me people have killed for FAR less then this.

So Lovick wants to build a fancy new courthouse & wants the Council to figure the budget out so he can see if it’s going to fly or not, he carries NO responsibility & can throw them under the bus if someone cries foul on the budget with a veto, so now that it is known that they are going to cut the first steps to keep their courthouse moving ahead he all of a sudden becomes a righteous indignant moral man. John step out of that suit, it doesn’t fit you & by the way you got a little ugly on your personality there.

John Lovick has shown his utter impotence & inability to carry out so much as daily activities in regards to county business, he fails to prosecute his friends, or hold anyone accountable as long as they kiss his butt. He has surrounded himself with unstable incompetent bullies so if anyone challenges him he can take them out one way or another BUT the moron voters put him there, they voted for stupid so stupid is what they get with a big helping of upcoming lawsuits.

Lovick made the announcement Thursday after performing his own fact-finding inquiry into comments made by Deputy Executive Mark Ericks this fall during closed-door meetings.

He was responding to a formal complaint that council Chairman Dave Somers filed Nov. 18, accusing Ericks of having said he would kill Councilman Terry Ryan “if it wasn’t for jail time.” Somers also recounted an episode in which Ericks allegedly laughed when another manager joked about drawing up death certificates for Somers and Ryan after calling Ryan a terrorist. “What I’ve determined is that no threats were made,” Lovick said. “I’ve interviewed a lot of people at the meeting and no threats were made.”

Lovick, Sullivan and Ericks all served together as Democrats in the state House of Representatives, Christman used to work with Ericks at the Bothell Police Department. Ryan and Lovick, however, have a history of disagreements dating back to their time together on the Mill Creek City Council according the Everett Herald.

Lovick is so supremely threatened by any challenge to his perceived Imperial Rule that he has no problem throwing anyone & everyone under the bus. As evidenced by his last inter office power struggle in February, when a council majority voted to extend the amount of time the auditor’s office would remain under the county auditor, instead of the executive. Lovick later vetoed that decision and now has authority over the tech department.

18} Evidently John Koster is not properly versed in the ways of kissing Lovick & the Council’s behind either as he sided with the Freedom Foundation on union issues on his own time, not on county time which is totally absolutely amazing in & of itself. So now they are trying to get rid of him too.

If you haven’t figured it out by now here it is: Wright is pissed because Somers is now the council chair so she lost her little stipend & power she thought she had.

Lovick is running scared because Koster & Somers could run against him & he couldn’t handle the competition.

All of his buddies that he promised jobs & money to are pissed because the council is blocking him & even getting rid of his buddies & their raises.

EVERYONE in the county is getting sick of Democratic rule & the endless lawsuits & incompetence so if Councilmember Klein did decide to run at this point he’d probably win or atleast give them a run for their money which they can NOT allow.

The general consensus is that Klein was just a sandwich maker for Microsoft ~ what that says to me is that he is a man who has had to work for his money so he would understand the working middle class & poor people better then any of those little silver spoon snots turning Snohomish County into a kindergarten playground.

My “newspaper career” started in school where I published a school newspaper in 1975 and the local Everett newspaper republished some of my articles and poems, I was forever changed. I knew then I was born to do this. I left SnoCo as a pre-teen and finally came back in 2000 where I found that the corruption had become so bad that it was unbearable. I kept wondering why someone didn’t do something about it and then I realized I was someone.